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Siraj Syed reviews The Founder: Hey Mac, watch out for that Burger!

Your McDonald’s burger is not going to be same again. Neither are the fries, or the softees.

This is a biopic (read ‘Based on a true story') about the Kroc behind the arches, an American salesman known to the world as Raymond A. Kroc, who consolidated and expanded the two-store enterprise to, nearly, what it is today. Not the founder of the pioneering and iconic fast-food chain, he was more or less solely responsible for making it a house-hold name. Kroc once described McDonald’s as a church that is open not only on Sundays, but seven days a week.

Love him or hate him, but see him in the nearest cinema hall. John Lee Hancock could do better, but not too much better with docu-feature that not once lets you miss the sex and violence and comics super-heroes and video games and trans-universal mass destruction and space sojourns and WWI/WWII/Middle-East and mythological war-sagas. Having said that, avoid it like any high calorie junk-food that you ought to be staying away from, in case “I hate documentaries, fictionalised or dramatised, period."

In 1954, Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) is a struggling travelling salesman for Prince Castle brand milk-shake makers. He has a neutrally supportive wife (Laura Dern) and has amassed enough money to live a comfortable, if simple, life, but constantly craves more. His frustrations are un-ambitious restaurant owners and incompetent service at drive-ins. After receiving word that a small diner is ordering an unusually large number of milk-shake makers from his company, Ray decides to go visit the enterprise in question. What he finds is a highly popular diner by the name of McDonald's.

Ray is immediately struck by the fast service, the high-quality food, the novelty of disposable packaging (versus cutlery) and the family-focused customers who regularly consume the food. Ray meets with the two brothers who own and operate the diner: the older and unassuming Maurice 'Mac' McDonald, and the intuitive and inventive, Richard "Dick" McDonald.

Ray is given a tour of the kitchens, and, immediately, is struck by the strong work ethic displayed by the employees. Dick explains the high-quality food and lightning-fast service are the backbones of their diner. Ray takes the brothers out to dinner and discovers the fascinating origin story of McDonald's. The brothers relate how they grew up poor, had dreams of going to Hollywood, were struck by the Depression, started their own hot dog stand, and, gradually expanded the traditional business model to create a highly productive diner that caters to the needs of the consumer, at a low cost, without sacrificing quality.

Sensing a long-awaited opportunity, Ray excitedly tells the brothers the following day that franchising the store is a must. Dick calmly explains that the brothers had attempted this very thing some time before but the enterprise quickly collapsed due to an inability to maintain strict quality control. Disheartened by the brothers' refusal to franchise, Ray leaves but takes note of a painting of a neon-lit McDonald's adorned with two bright yellow spherical shapes. Dick reveals this painting was to be the basis of the franchise stores and although one was constructed, the plan was abandoned. He also explains that the yellow shapes are the "golden arches", part of the exterior store-design of McDonalds.

Written by Robert ‘Rob’ D. Siegel (The Onion Movie, The Wrestler, Turbo), who apparently had to add some links and tone down other stuff rather mercilessly, The Founder has been further sanitised by the Indian Central Board of Film Certification: no f--- words, not even five-letter b- words  any -itch way. Amazingly, the religious tropes are all there to see and discover, but they never once come in the way of your enjoyment of the movie, whether Kroc is finding commonality between the church and the McDonalds arches or when he is addressing groups of religious/cult denominations as diverse as Freemasons and Jews. He stops short of turning the Mc brothers into caricatures, a writing decision that might have emanated from their real-life- personas.

There are a dozen morals to be learnt from the tale, the most radical of them being that enterprise and fierce ethics do not go together, as personified by the original McDonald brothers, followed by "Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful men with talent,"--Ray Kroc, quoting his self-help book iconic author, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. Look carefully, and you might even find the pronouncements hollow and misleading, populist preachy.

[Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, 1898–1993, was a Christian church minister and author of The Power of Positive Thinking. His quotes include: “Expect the best and get it; Believe in yourself and in everything you do; Develop the power to reach your goals; Break the worry habit and achieve a relaxed life; Improve your personal and professional relationships; Assume control over your circumstances.”]

John Lee Hancock (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil-writer, Saving Mr. Banks, The Alamo, Snow White and the Huntsman) comes close to perfection as he does pretty much all a director could do to interpret a ‘factual’ story, contemporary in nature and household in reach. Partly, it is an extension or ‘reverse angle take’ on of Saving Mr. Banks, which was about the author of Mary Poppins and Walt Disney’s strategy of getting her to part with the film rights of her literary, children’s work. Disney and Kroc were friends too, dating back to World war I.          

Michael John Douglas ‘Keaton' (66, Batman, Birdman, Jackie Brown), starts the Tom Hanks rejected role as Ray Kroc, aged 52, in 1954. He probably looks a little older, what with the weather-beaten wrinkles and sagging skin. So what? It’s a great opportunity to essay the part of a man who represented the now chronic American social conflict of ‘greed’ v/s ‘good’, family and ethical values v/s personal success and riches. Come to think of it, it might have been a bigger challenge at hand for Hanks to come across as anything but a greyish shade of pale. Keaton, for his part, makes even the dark grey a natural trait, and yet too human to arouse disdain. Acting honours could come aknocking.

Nick Offerman as Richard "Dick" McDonald (Treasure Island, Danny Collins, Welcome Happiness) and John Carroll Lynch as Maurice "Mac" McDonald (Fargo, Crazy Stupid Love, Jackie) get too close to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy to do justice to their own, individualities. Unaware of what the guys themselves were like and how much of their screen images are the result of interpretations at the writing and direction stages, one can go with the accusation that the comparison is odious.

Some quality support comes from Linda Cardellini as Joan Smith, Patrick Wilson as Rollie Smith, B.J. Novak as Harry J. Sonneborn, Laura Dern as Ethel Fleming, Ric Reitz as Will Davis, Justin Randell Brooke as Fred Turner, Wilbur Fitzgerald as Jerry Cullen and Kate Kneeland as June Martino. Music by Carter Burwell is just the thing to wash down the burgers and fries with.

Theatrics being not an essential component of this slice/bun of life saga, home audiences will enjoy it too. The main course, of course, is that man Keaton. Or, living the filmed legend, that Burger, Kroc.

Rating: ****

Trailer: http://www.traileraddict.com/the-founder/trailer

Ray Kroc

Ray Kroc was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1902. He worked as a salesman for 17 years after World War I, before becoming involved with McDonald’s in the mid-1950s. Kroc purchased the restaurant company in 1961, implementing automation and strict preparation standards that helped make McDonald’s the world’s largest restaurant franchise, before his death in 1984, at the age of 81.

Under Kroc’s ownership, McDonald’s retained some of its original character, while incorporating new elements. Kroc kept the assembly line approach to hamburger preparation that the McDonald brothers pioneered in the 1940s. Kroc’s key contributions to the restaurant were automation, standardisation and discipline. Franchise owners, carefully chosen for their ambition and drive, went through a training course at “Hamburger University” in Elk Grove, Illinois. There, they earned certificates in “Hamburgerology, with a minor in French fries.”

By the time of Ray Kroc’s death, McDonald’s had 7,500 locations in 31 countries and was worth $8 billion. His personal fortune was estimated at $500 million. Ray Kroc died on January 14, 1984. The Founder has been released 33 years after his death.